''Disciples'' is a series of TurnBasedStrategy HighFantasy computer games set in the land of Nevendaar, a somewhat gothic StandardFantasySetting with four (and later five) main powers.

* [[TheKingdom The Empire]], a [[NonIndicativeName noble and ancient kingdom]] of human [[KnightInShiningArmor Knights In Shining Armour]] who worship [[CrystalDragonJesus the Highfather]]* [[LegionsOfHell The Legions of the Damned]], a group of AlwaysChaoticEvil demons who try to free their god Bethrezen from hell* [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame The Mountain Clans]], a collection of Dwarvish Clans who worship [[NorseMythology Wotan]]* [[TheUndead The Undead Hordes]], a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin horde of the undead]] created by Mortis to attack the dwarves in a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Wotan for throwing her lover's heart into the sun, which she lost her flesh retrieving* [[TheAlliance The Elven Alliance]], a collection of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin elves]] who begin to organize after events in the second game's first two {{Expansion Pack}}s [[spoiler:bring their old god and Mortis' lover back to life]].

All units travel in parties which the player hires in cities. Each party consists of at least one unit, and at least one of these units is a leader unit, hired on their own at considerable more expense than other units, though they're usually more powerful anyways. All leader units have a leadership stat that determines [[ArbitraryHeadcountLimit how many other units can travel in their party]].

The first game is ''Disciples: Sacred Lands''. It featured the "First Great War", where the first four main factions of the game duke it out.

''Disciples II: Dark Prophecy'' is a turn-based strategy game developed by Strategy First. It takes place a decade after the first, and, depending on the campaign you choose, follows the Empire's [[CivilWarCraft rebellion]] and the discovery of an heir to the Empire, or it follows the aftermath of the Legions' attempt to free their god, or it follows the Undead's attempt to resurrect Mortis' old lover, or it follows the Clans' attempts to rebuild and keep it together. It has three {{Expansion Pack}}s, the first two of which, named Servants of the Dark and Guardians of the Light, mainly add new campaigns and units, and the third of which, Rise of the Elves, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin made the elves playable]] and added a campaign for them.

''Disciples III: Renaissance'' was developed by an altogether different company than the original and released almost a decade after its predecessor. It increased the number of RPGElements, changed the battle system to a hex-based grid [[GeoEffects where some tiles can't be passed through and others convey bonuses]], and whether it's good or not divides the fanbase. There was a campaign for the three races featured that made it into the game; the Empire, the Damned, and the Elves. The campaign centers around Inoel, an angel sent on an important mission by the Highfather. An expansion pack bringing back the Undead called "Resurrection" was released later on. Another release, called "Reincarnation", combines the plot of "Renaissance" and "Resurrection" into one package, reworks the gameplay in some parts and adds a few new elements, as well as putting the Mountain Clans back in the game.

----!! The series as a whole contains examples of:* AltumVidetur: The Legion's spells, and a lot of their unit's chatter, is in Latin.* AmbiguousGender: The Empire Acolyte wears a lot of robes and has a hood over their face, and so can pass for a young boy or girl. This is probably intentional; it can upgrade into either the male priest or female cleric line. The Legion's Cultist unit wears a face-concealing mask and white robes and can likewise upgrade into either the male sorcerer or female witch, but has a decidedly-male voice. This could just be because EvilSoundsDeep, however.* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Both used and subverted. Each party can only have so many units in it, which is decided by the party leader's "Leadership" trait (which upgrades rarely), but there's no limit on parties except for money.** The Legions get hit with this hardest, since they have more large units (Their Support and Archery lines, and their special units) than other races.* {{Backstory}}: Apparently created for Disciples II's last expansion, and [[AllThereInTheManual rarely referenced in the game]]. Can really only be found on the internet. Specifically, [[http://www.disciples3.com/thegame/history_eng.htm here]].* BoringButPractical: The Legion's melee line, which lacks the awesome potential of the Empire and Undead lines, but has a nice 50% daily regeneration effect on their best fighters. Also, the Legion's Counselor leader; he's nothing special, but he's the only traditional archer the Legions have got, since their Archery line consists of sturdier, but more expensive and large-sized Gargoyles.* CameBackWrong: Solionelle, AKA, Mortis.* CombatTentacles: The Beast, Tiamat, and Kraken units.* CrystalDragonJesus: The Highfather of the Empire.* DemonicPossession: Most of the front-line infantry for the [[TheLegionsOfHell Legions of the Damned]] are humans possessed by demons. And a few of the other Legion units probably qualify as well.* DemBones: Some neutral units and of course many of the Undead Hordes' units. Every Undead cutscene only shows skeletons.* DifficultButAwesome: The Mountain Clans, being slower and having some very unusual unit development (for example, their Mage line units don't fight, but their other three lines can all develop to hit the entire enemy party, like Mages) are harder to work with than other races, until you get used to them. Once you do, they can be a serious force to contend with.* DisproportionateRetribution: After the angel Bethrezen creates the world of Nevendaar and populates it (with the help of other gods) with living beings, he goes to fetch the Highfather to show him the world, leaving the other angels in charge. The jealous angels sabotage Nevendaar, so that, when the Highfather sees it, it is engulfed by war. Without bothering to find out what happened, the Highfather punishes Bethrezen by sealing him for eternity in the molten core of his own world. No wonder Bethrezen grows bitter and insane, becoming this world's equivalent of TheDevil.* ElementalPowers: All factions tend to focus on 1 or 2 of the following: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Death, Life, Mind and Weapon (the last is less an Element than it is the absence of an element, it is used for most Unit's melee/archery attacks).** Empire is Air (Lightning), and Life (healing).** Legion is mainly Fire with some Mind thrown in.** Mountain Clans is Water (Ice) and Earth.** Undead Hordes is mainly Death.** Elven Alliance is the most scattered, with the most prevalent being Air.* EvilVersusEvil: Almost everywhere. The Demons and Undead regularly fight each other, the campaigns sometimes give them civil wars, and many neutral or evil factions of the "Good Races" will fight each other or the Demons/Undead constantly.* ForDoomTheBellTolls: Heard very frequently as part of overworld music tracks* FisherKing: The landscape changes to reflect who controls territory. The Empire's territory are healthy green fields, Demon territory is hellish with lava pools and magma, Undead territory is dead shriveled up dirt and trees, Dwarf territory is covered in snow. The Elven territory is ''even greener'' fields.* GiantSpider: There's one monster like this in the first game, and two monsters in the second. * GrimDark: This series does a very good job of bringing the mood of a dark world. The soundtrack (and the sound effects in general) are especially ''awesome'' in this regard.* HealingPotion: Several, of varying strengths.* TheHorde: Undead Hordes as playable. A few of the neutral factions come off this way as well, especially the Greenskins (Goblins).* InfinityPlusOneElement: Life element, due to the fact no unit in the game can have any form of immunity to it. For player-controlled units, Life element tends to come in the form of healing or buffing, but capitol guardians and super-bosses will also use it for unpreventable attacks.* JackOfAllStats: The Empire, which is the most straight-forward race. They possess what is possibly the strongest melee line, a solid archery line and an average mage line, but most of all have Healers. The Elven Alliance arguably also qualify, but switch the melee and archery line around in terms of strength.* LethalJokeCharacter: The Undead Horde's Nosferatu leader, who at first seems like a joke since his attack deals a mere 10 damage (although it does hit all enemies). Level him up enough, however, and he turns out to be a mage who can easily stand in the front row and is nearly impossible to kill, since his attacks also drain life. If only he had the overflow version like Elder Vampires...* LevelEditor* LightningBruiser: The Capital Guardians are universally NighInvulnerable and hit for ''massive'' damage, though they can never leave the Capital. It takes a lot of effort to kill them.* LizardFolk: One of two "Marshdweller" monsters. * LordBritishPostulate: With lots of LevelGrinding and serious abuse of stacked buffs, it's possible to kill the Capital Guardian units.* LoveMakesYouEvil: Solionelle's RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Wotan for his attack on Gallean, which caused her to turn into Mortis.* MightyGlacier: The Mountain Clans are ''all'' about this trope; their units are always tougher in damage and HP than equivalent ones of other races, but they're also slower.* NightmareFace: High-level demons qualify. Also, the Wight.* NoCampaignForTheWicked: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in all games.* TheMedic: Imperial and Elven healing units.* OurDragonsAreDifferent: There are several different types of dragons in the series. They mainly differentiate by their color and attack type, although some have more HP than others. The Undead also have reanimated some dragons for use as heavy hitters.* OurElvesAreBetter: Mostly Wood Elves in earlier series (with occasional High Elves), though from the second game's last expansion, High Elves begin to show up just as often.* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Mermaids are pretty much just monsters who swim around and eat people.* OurOrcsAreDifferent: The Greenskins race appears to include not only orcs but also goblins and trolls, despite goblins not actually having green skin. Besides ordinary orcs, there are also Orc Kings, who are much tougher and, according to their description, are smarter than the average orc.* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Both vampires and elder vampires have very pale skin, the elder vampire also possessing glowing red eyes. Vampires can, however, be exposed to sunlight with no ill effects. They still drain life.** Based from the notes they are humans who reject the words of the highfather but didn't worship demons either thus turning into these.* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Werewolves are immune to Weapon damage (i.e. non-magical attacks), thus requiring the use of magic. Fortunately, any decent party will have at least one caster, and the front-line units can be set to "Guard", giving them a defense stat boost.* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The Undead Hordes are created by Mortis for exactly this purpose.* RPGElements: All units get ExperiencePoints and [[CharacterLevel level up]], and the leaders are able to select equipment to boost their stats or give them abilities, and will be able to choose new skills after leveling.* TheCorruption: Watch how the cultist, the basic mages in the Legion slowly turn into a [[BodyHorror Demonlogist to a Modeus]].* TheLegionsOfHell: As a major playable faction.* VendorTrash: In the form of ancient relics, precious gems, and jewelry.* TheWitchHunter: The Empire unit Squire can be upgraded to Witch Hunter, which is resistant against magical attacks. They are dressed in the garb usually associated with these kind of characters.* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: GodOfEvil is [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] since the "evil" gods only became evil because their "good" compatriots were jerks who treated them like garbage. This does not apply to their followers. Bethrezen's [[LegionsOfHell Legions of the Damned]] are by far the nastiest faction who gleefully corrupt and slaughter in Bethrezen's name and TheUndead Hordes are utterly ruthless while following Mortis' will.

----!!''Sacred Lands'' contains examples of:

* NoCanonForTheWicked: Semi-averted, seeing as the ending of the Legions [[spoiler:has Bethrezen breaking free [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and all non-demons being made into slaves or corpses]]]], you can sort of see why the sequels didn't canonize it. ''Dark Prophecy'' instead used a mixture of the Empire (which is basically the exact opposite) and Legions endings; the demons DID succeed in allowing Bethrezen to possess the imperial heir, but the Empire and Mountain Clans sealed Bethrezen in the mines where the ritual was performed.** The Undead ending is a full aversion though, it involves the death of the Mountain Clans High King, and is completely canon; the event is even mentioned halfway through the Mountain Clan campaign and causes major issues for them even ten years later.

----!!''Dark Prophecy'' contains examples of:

* AggressiveNegotiations: In the ''Rise of the Elves'' expansion, this has a tendency to happen whenever [[spoiler:the elves and humans try to sit across the table from each other and make peace]].* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: For some unexplained reason, the ladies of the eleven royal lines are all blue-skinned.* BadassGrandpa: The higher-form human and dwarf units tend to be old men. It does nothing to stop them from being several times more powerful than their younger forms. Excusable for the dwarves, cause they're [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]].* BigBad: [[spoiler:Uther and Demon Uther]] for the Legions of the Damned and Empire respectively, as well as [[spoiler:Niddhogg]] for the Mountain Clans and [[spoiler:the elves]] for The Undead Hordes]] [[spoiler:and vice versa]]* BookEnds: The beginning of the Legions' Dark Prophecy campaign relates how the demons have a different, and much more extreme measure of pain than humans do. The end of the same campaign mentions that their view of the flow of time is also much different.* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Gymner Cloudkeeper]]. His dad doesn't... [[DrivenToMadness take it well]].* CombatExclusiveHealing: Priests and other healing units can only restore hit points during combat, requiring a slow health recovery between battles. However, the healer may still act during a round if all enemies are killed before the healer's turn. * CombatMedic: Elder Vampires distribute drained life points among the injured allies.* DemonicPossession: Bethrezen does this to Uther. [[spoiler:Or tries to at least; turns out Uther only got part of Bethrezen's [[TheCorruption evil]] and [[SuperpoweredEvilSide power]] crammed into him, but not Bethrezen himself]]* EnemyCivilWar: Demon Legions divide between loyal to Bethrezen and loyal to Uther, Undead Hordes fight the ones who breaks from Mortis influence under leadership of Bone Lord. ** The Narrator actually brings up the EnemyCivilWar in the epilogue of the Legion's Dark Prophecy campaign; that it served to keep many innocents out of harm's way.* ExpansionPack: Three. Two of them, Servants of the Dark and Guardians of the Light, add campaigns for half the original four races (the evil and good races respectively), some units, and some missions, while the third, Rise of the Elves, adds a fifth race, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin elves]].** The first two are actually one expansion, Gallean's Return, which was released in two separate packs at first.* GameBreakingBug: In addition to the regular elf campaign, the Rise of the Elves expansion gives them a bonus campaign. One mission requires you to protect a diplomat. He then turns on you, requiring you to kill him. Problem is, the programmers forgot to disable the EscortMission at this point, leaving you to [[SadisticChoice lose by killing him or lose by letting him kill all your men.]]* TheHeavy: [[spoiler:Uther,]] in Dark Prophecy. He's only the BigBad during the Empire and Legions sagas, but his return to the land kicks off the events that begins the majority of the plot.* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In the final mission of the Empire's campaign in the ''Gallean's Return'' expansion, the demon Nebiros taunts the heroes by claiming that as long as Bethrezen's Well is standing, the Infernal Plague will ravage the land. The heroes then exclaim that destroying the Well is the key to saving the world. Nebiros has a moment of VisibleSilence when he [[OhCrap realizes]] that he just told the heroes what they needed to do to stop the evil plan.* OneWomanWail: Mortis is still crying, and you can hear it as part of the background noise for the undead.* OnlySaneMan: [[spoiler:Morok]] is the only person to see through [[spoiler:Uther's]] deception, but it's dismissed as paranoia when it's first brought up.* ShoutOut: The cheat codes are titles of famous rock songs ("[[Music/TheWall ANOTHERBRICKINTHEWALL]]", [[Music/TheRollingStones PAINTITBLACK]]", "[[Franchise/TheBeatles COMETOGETHER]]", etc).* StandAloneEpisode: The Mountain Clans' saga in Dark Prophecy. The Empire, Legions and Undead Hordes' sagas all effect each other in certain ways (The hordes attacking the elves, the hordes constantly searching for Uther), but the Clans go off by themselves by their fourth chapter.* {{Striperiffic}}: The elf queen Taladrielle. Little more than a stiff breeze would be required to reveal her nipples. Her successors all dress more modestly.* VillainProtagonist: The player during the Undead and Legion's campaign in any of the games [[spoiler:and during the Elven campaign in Rise of the Elves.]]* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Uther does this to you towards the end of the Empire and Legion campaigns]]

----!!''Renaissance'' contains examples of:

* [[spoiler:ApocalypseMaiden]]: [[spoiler:Inoel]]* BackStab: [[spoiler:Ferre kills Haar-huus this way after the latter exhausts himself after defeating Bethrezen's Avatar]].* CorruptChurch: The Imperial Inquisition.* DevelopmentHell: The game was a ''long'' time in the making. When it was first released, it was in Russian and an ObviousBeta. It took over half a year for an English version to come out.* GameBreakingBug: Even despite being released six months later outside Russia, it came with some nasty bugs, including one that would have you spontaneously start playing ''your opponents'' in singleplayer.* GeoEffects: Certain hexes of the map will double the strength of one of the three types of attacks.* HealingSpring: The world map's fountains function like this.* [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice: In the ending of the Renaissance portrays Lambert, several human soldiers and elves to save their world from the total destruction. All is save as it was said.]]* JerkassGods: The revelations in this game reveal that ''all'' of the gods [[spoiler:except, oddly enough, the {{Satan}} expy Bethrezen]] are JerkassGods [[spoiler:what with them wanting to destroy the world and start over.]]** There were hints of this earlier, though -- the Highfather's DisproportionateRetribution against Bethrezen for something he didn't even do, without bothering to find out what actually happened first. Wotan's murder of Gallean for daring to suggest that the Mountain Clans should be punished for unprovoked slaughter of Elven refugees they mistook for invaders. [[spoiler: Gallean's rejection of Mortis after she went through hell to revive him.]]* LavaAddsAwesome: Seems to be the entire design philosophy behind the reworked Demons, the omnious latin and gothic feel having been entirely replaced with lava effects and spikes.* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Haar-huus]]* StartOfDarkness: During [[spoiler:Haar-huus' campaign you play through his transformation from noble Elven warrior to demonic servant thousands of years ago.]]* YouShallNotPass: Lambert make his last stand as [[spoiler:he try to prevent the demons from passing to the gate where Inoelle just left.]]